First hydrogen locomotive started working in Poland.

  • Bonehead@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Trains don’t run on diesel directly. They use diesel generators to drive electric motors that actually move the train. How those motors are powered is relatively irrelevant. This just replaces the diesel generators with hydrogen fuel cells…I think. I don’t read Polish well. Or at all.

      • stephen01king@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        Because now you have to build an electrified track infrastructure in instead of using an already built railway track.

          • hansl@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Jeez if only smart people thought of that.

            Real answer: it’s actually a lot of logistics and technical challenge to bring overhead lines to the whole of eve a small country like England. A lot of these tracks are in regions where there’s no power lines nearby. You still want the trains to go to and through these places.

            • roguetrick@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              That’s logic comparing the economic costs of diesel to electric. If you compare the economics with hydrogen, it makes much more sense to run the wire with the track, independent of the availability of electricity.

              • hansl@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Hydrogen could be used as a bridge gap measure. It’s relatively easy to move diesel engines to hydrogen. And hydrogen production, even when using gas, is still better than diesel engines.

      • cuacamole@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Sometimes youll need stuff like this. Rail maintenance cant always be done using overhead lines, since the machines will get destroyed by electric breakdown(?).

        Some parts are not electrified yet, some cant be without major work being done to the track.

        It is not ideal, but sometimes you cant do it otherwise, or you’d have to cut of some parts, imo its a useful way to bridge gaps.